Fact or Crap

Too many unknowns re the oil wt selection.

However, I'd never purposefully under fill an engine. And windage trays and pan fitments prevent frothing on a properly filled engine anyway.

Look at it this way. In the constant search for MPG, do you really think the OEs would leave 5% on the table from a 1/2 qt variable?

 

Well... that proves that 6% of voting fuelly members are idiots.

 

• The team of engineers who designed your engine

• Some guy on the internet

Pick one to listen to regarding how much oil you need.

 

Well, when you put it that way...

 

Typical internet guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjvQFtlNQ-M

 

How about you listen to an engineer on the internet like myself.

The team of engineers who designed the engine, DID NOT design the truck to be run on 5.5 quarts of oil as the factory manuals. It is designed to run properly when filled between the two dots on the dipstick. There is also additional fill tolerance factored in there because the average person tends to not be as aware of their vehicle as enthusiasts are. How many of your spouses have turned the radio up and driven a vehicle 2-3 quarts low on oil and not blown up the engine? Ive accidentally driven my old BMW 3 quarts low on the way to vegas and it got there just fine. Sure I filled it up when I found a parts store but thats not the point. Its also like the octane rating on the trucks. They are designed to run on anything from say 85-95 octane fuel. Sometimes you just have to fill up in the middle of knowhere where they have bad gas. The truck will still run.

Back when I used to drag race, we would put 8 quart Moroso oil pans with windage trays and crank scrapers on the car and only run 6 quarts of oil. This helps keep oil off the crank and reduces rotational mass. An old race saying "cut the ounces and the lbs will come" or something like that comes into play here. As long as the engine doesnt overheat and the pickup in the oil pan is covered in oil and does not run dry during operations you are fine. I am not sure if Tacomas come with windage trays but its my guess that they dont for cost savings. Having the truck filled to the bottom of the dipstick will help prevent oil from sloshing up and getting onto the crank.

 

They totally leave 5% on the table. If they run the tolerances super tight, they will be paying out the whazoo in warranty claims for blown engines. The customer pays for the shitty fuel economy instead of the manufacturer paying warranty claims for blown engines running a 1/2 quart low on oil. Its all about $$$$

 

I can't tell which way you voted by this post. Just curious.

Edit, you voted fact. Interesting. I'll have to do some research.

 

less oil > weight reduction bro! quick maths. instant fuel savings guaranteed!

 

I voted fact. Whether or not the guy actually saved 5% mpg or whatever could be argued based upon how he measured but its a solid concept that has been used before.

 

Its not the weight reduction from the oil, its the weight reduction of oil sticking to the crank shaft. The crank is spinning say 2500 RPM under normal operation vs a wheel/tire spinning 800rpm at 60mph. Same concept as reducing wheel/tire weight increases fuel economy. Reduce rotating mass of the crank for efficiency.

Check this out-

http://blog.cantonracingproducts.com/blog/oil-pan-capacity-too-much-vs-not-enough

 

I was making a joke... anyways im not even going to get into this whole mpg mumble jumble lol.

 

These arent splash sump motors guys..... The crank should not be submerged in oil when the motor is on and running, Oil level within the specified dipstick range should yield no differences in mpgs.

 

Another engineer that actually works in the auto industry chiming in here. This is total crap. We are not talking about racing engines here where ounces and HP are tweaked to the max, we are talking about standard production engines with standard tolerances. Huge difference, remember, racing engines go 1/4 mile and get rebuilt.
But if you want to experiment, it’s easy, just use 5quarts on your next oil change rather than 5.5 quarts and see if you mpg increases (it won’t).

 

Some quick and dirty math has determined that if you drive 15,000 miles a year and increase your MPG by 5% you will save yourself $75-$90 per YEAR. That's dog shit. 99% of us here piss away more than that each year on shit we don't even remember buying. Not to mention the methods used to determine the savings described by OP would have to prove they're at least giving us data that's precise enough for 5% to even be significant. I'm betting it's not. You increase the weight of your truck by 5% just bringing home that dirty 1:30 you picked up at the bar last friday night.

While I agree that going half full on the dipstick means nothing in the long run I do not agree with running straight 0W. I will concede that it's possible the OP might be fact I'm still voting crap given the context. There's no reason to do this.

 

So what your saying is 1/2 a quart will make the oil pump slow down, and not pump as much oil, therefore everything will weigh less and the crank will have less rotational mass..lol..I dont think so...does the crank dip down into the oil at all? Does it have sling plates?

 

It also says 0w oil, not 0w-20. They used to use 0w in NASCAR during qualifying because it's so much thinner and is easier to pump and flow through the engines causing less drag on rotating parts...Used to do that, when they had qualifying motors that only had to last 5 laps. Now they have to race with the motor they qualified with, don't think you would see them running 0w now. Maybe you would gain 5% mpg improvement running 0w oil but I wouldn't risk the wear on the motor just to find out.

 

oil!

 

I'm sorry, but you're not an engineer if this bullshit is spewing out of your mouth.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Running your engine low on oil DOES damage it. Period.
Will the engine blow up the instant you start it up on low oil? No...damaging an engine takes time.
It takes time (often, a lot of time) to develop scoring on the cylinder walls due to lack of oil.
It takes many, many heat cycles for metals to deform due to high heat from lack of oil.
This is the difference between an engine taking a shit at 150k, and a well-maintained motor looking golden when you pop the oil pan off at 200k.
It doesn't happen in 10, 20, or 50 miles. It happens over several thousand miles. The more oil that is missing from your engine, the faster the damage will occur. A spun rod bearing doesn't happen because you ran it low on oil once, it happens when the bearing is starved for oil and heated up and fused to the crankshaft because it became so deformed.
You ever noticed how a motor gets louder when its low on oil? The timing chain slaps around more, lifter taps become noticeable. Add oil, the noise goes away. NOISE = PARTS HITTING EACH OTHER = DAMAGE (unintended noise, that is).

Again, your explanation of octane couldn't possibly be more bullshit.
A lower octane rating than your car is designed for will cause pre-detonation, aka knock. Knock will destroy your engine.
Some cars have engines/computers that can compensate for slightly lower octane by cutting ignition timing if they detect too much knock.


"cut the ounces and the lbs will come"
WHAT.THE.FUCK.DOES.THIS.EVEN.MEAN????